Five Candidates Certified For State Bar Board of Governors

San Francisco, July 9, 2010 — Five attorneys have been elected to serve three-year terms on the State Bar’s Board of Governors, it was announced today.

In the first hybrid online or paper ballot vote, Karen Goodman of Sacramento won the District 2 seat; Alec Chang of Palo Alto won the District 3 seat; Loren Kieve of San Francisco won the District 4 seat; Gretchen Nelson of Los Angeles won Seat 1 in District 7, and Luis Rodriguez of Los Angeles won Seat 2 in District 7. Turnout amounted to 19 percent of those eligible to cast ballots, up from last year’s 16 percent.

The new members of the board, the governing and policymaking body of the 228,000-member organization, will be sworn in at the bar’s annual meeting Sept. 25 in Monterey.

Goodman, 50, a principal at Goodman & Associates, where she handles professional liability, business and real estate litigation, is a past president of California Women Lawyers. She has long been involved in bar activities, including serving on the Conference of Delegates and the Legal Malpractice Specialization Commission. Goodman is a graduate of UC-Davis and the University of San Francisco School of Law. District 2 covers Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Napa, Sacramento, Solano, Sonoma, Tuolumne and Yolo counties. The vote for District 2 was Goodman 1,331 and Mark Borden 780.

Chang, 45, an antitrust lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP,serves on the boards of the Santa Clara County Bar Association, the Asian Pacific Bar Association of Silicon Valley and the Asian American Law Fund of New York. He also has served as president of the Asian American Bar Association of New York. Chang is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Tulane University Law School. He received 1,875 votes to Mike Schmier’s 1,117 in District 3, which covers Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

Kieve, 62, who got his law degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law, has his own firm, Kieve Law Offices, Inc., and specializes in complex domestic and international disputes and legal problems, including civil cases, internal investigations, corporate compliance and arbitrations. He has worked with large firms on the east and west coasts and has been involved with a variety of law-related organizations, such as the ABA House of Delegates, the ABA’s Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Appointments and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the Bay Area. Kieve received 1,312 votes, David DeGroot 1,133 votes and Ronald Goldman 249 votes. District 4 covers San Francisco and Marin counties.

Nelson, 55, is a former president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and she received the Breakfast Club endorsement for the county’s seat one position. A partner with Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, Nelson has been a trial lawyer for more than 25 years with experience at small- and medium-sized law firms as well as solo practice. A graduate of Smith College and Georgetown University Law Center, Nelson serves on the board of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles and chairs the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s judicial election evaluation committee. District 1 covers Los Angeles. Nelson received 3,959 votes, Joseph Donnini 1,223 votes and Colleen O’Hara 738 votes.

Rodriguez, 43, is a Los Angeles County public defender who did both his undergraduate and law school work at the University of Santa Clara. He was endorsed by the Breakfast Club, Los Angeles Public Defender Michael Judge, District Attorney Steve Cooley and former State Bar President Holly Fujie. A former member of the California Board of Education, Rodriguez is also former president of the Mexican American Bar Association and former chair of the bar’s Council on Access and Fairness. He received 2,492 votes compared to 1,599 for Daniel Sobelsohn, 1,324 for Steven Hazen and 583 for Jeffrey Lustman.

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Founded in 1927 by the legislature, The State Bar of California is an administrative arm of the California Supreme Court, serving the public and seeking to improve the justice system for more than 80 years. All lawyers practicing law in California must be members of the State Bar. By July 2010, membership reached 228,000.